stART shopping; Festival features art, jewelry, entertainment and The Couch

Byline: Nancy Sheehan

An estimated 25,000 people wended

An equally sizable crowd is expected this year for the big one-dayarts bash, which runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday (rain date is Sept. 27). Park Avenue will be closed to vehicular traffic between Highland and Pleasant streets for the event. Admission is free, but don'tleave your wallet at home because not only might you be cited for driving without a license, but with 241 artists in 233 booths (some artists share spaces), there's bound to be something calling your name.

This year the ever-growing stART fest offers a few new twists, including a WOOphoria multi-generational interactive area.

WOOwhat???

OK. We will repeat that, in English this time. Part of the Worcester Cultural Coalition's 10th anniversary celebration, the WOOphoria area will be located in the heart of stART and offer many activities including walking tours of Elm Park, a huge rubber band art installation that you can help build and a community poem you can help write. ("There once was a festival of art; That was really quite an upstART; Everyone thought it was such a lark; That they closed off the avenue called Park; To give each fall a great stART.")

If your feet get tired from trudging from booth to booth, there's always The Couch. Think "Centennial of Sigmund Freud's visit to ClarkUniversity," which is this fall, and now you're beginning to get thecouch concept. We will let Erin Williams, the city's cultural development officer, elaborate: "The Couch, created by local artist Gary Orlinsky, will make its first appearance at WOOphoria and then will be displayed at Clark University and various events and locations (indoors and out) around Worcester County in the months to come. Visitors to The Couch will be invited to write out their complaints, concerns, hopes and dreams on slips of paper and deposit them in a box providedas part of The Couch display. These slips will subsequently be givento other artists and performers to create original music, poetry andcreative city expressions that will help us let go of our negativityand look to a forward-thinking creative identity."

Meanwhile, we all have a stART festival to go to. We asked Tina Zlody, festival co-director, a few questions earlier this week:

Q Why does stART draw so many people?

A We are a free, exciting festival that continually surprises its visitors with new interactive projects, new artists, new music, and how much better could that be!

Q What are the biggest challenges from an organizer's standpoint?

A Coming up with the funds to pay for all of the exciting projectswe want to host. Few people really realize the mounting cost of a project of this magnitude. Police costs, insurance, portable toilets, permitting and supplies. It can be very overwhelming to us. On that note, supporting this amazing free event is simple: Come to the festival and buy a stART on the Street T-shirt or shopping bag, or donate your spare change by feeding it to the sculpture we will have at the Elm Street information booth.

Q This is your seventh stART. Is it still fun for you?

A Man, we LOVE what we do, but this week is a tad stressful. Once again, keep in mind, we all work full-time jobs and have families that have to pick up our slack when we are in event-planning mode. We are all very lucky that our friends and families support unconditionally in what we are passionate about.

Q Do you sleep the night before?

A 4 a.m. comes really quickly when you're still sweeping the sidewalks at 8 p.m. the night before.

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: Jewelry pieces by Keelin Brett and artwork by Sarah Brueck. On the cover, artists pose with examples of tape sculptures that will be a part of stART on the Street (photo by Jim Collins).